Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 23, 2018, the parties in the Yahoo! Inc. (“Yahoo!”) Customer Data Security Breach Litigation pending in the Northern District of California and the parties in the related litigation pending in California state court filed a motion seeking preliminary approval of a settlement related to breaches of the company’s data. These breaches were announced from September 2016 to October 2017 and collectively impacted approximately 3 billion user accounts worldwide. In June 2017, Yahoo! and Verizon Communications Inc. had completed an asset sale transaction, pursuant to which Yahoo! became Altaba Inc. (“Altaba”) and Yahoo!’s previously operating business became Oath Holdings Inc. (“Oath”). Altaba and Oath have each agreed to be responsible for 50 percent of the settlement.

Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo!, through its successor in interest, Oath Holdings Inc., has agreed to enhance its business practices to improve the security of its users’ personal information stored on its databases. Yahoo! will also pay for a minimum of two years of credit monitoring services to protect settlement class members from future harm, as well as establish a $50 million settlement fund to provide an alternative cash payment for those who verify they already have credit monitoring or identity protection. The settlement fund will also cover demonstrated out-of-pocket losses, including loss of time, and payments to Yahoo! users who paid for advertisement-free or premium Yahoo! Mail services and those who paid for Aabaco Small Business services, which included business email services. The motion for approval is currently before the court, which has scheduled a hearing for November 29, 2018, on the matter.